Alaska Autumn

The forest in this photograph goes most of the way around the world. This is the boreal, the great northern belt of birch, aspen, and spruce that circles the planet through Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, and Siberia, and every September the Alaskan stretch of it catches fire, whole hillsides turning to color at once.

I found this bend in the road outside Fairbanks with the hills stacked in orange and gold as far as I could see, the spruce holding their dark green like punctuation. There was no traffic to wait out. It was just me, the soft ticking of leaves blowing across the pavement, and a yellow centerline pointing into all of it.

I shot low over the line and let a long lens stack the forest into a single glowing wall, so the road does not cut through the color, it disappears into it. I wanted the photograph to feel the way that drive feels, the moment you stop caring where the road goes because every curve only hands you more of this.

This print is for anyone who loves fall the way Alaskans do, briefly, fiercely, and with the heater on. The oranges and ambers glow like a hearth on a wall, made for living rooms, cabins, and offices, anywhere that could use a warmer season. Printed and finished to gallery standard. Whatever the calendar says outside your window, on this road it is peak color forever.